So, the good new is I confirmed that my NYRB subscription for 2016 is all set and in their system. The bad news is, they say I let my subscription lapse (really? I kept waiting for a renewal notice which never came and I emailed about, and then emailed again and finally called and renewed by phone), and by the time I had renewed just before Christmas, I was sort of late. It will now take six to eight weeks for the 2016 subscription to kick in, and thanks very much for my patience and understanding. Shh. Best not to tell them that I actually am a very impatient person when it comes to books, so I will try and be good and stop looking in my mailbox for the January book. When it finally comes sometime in February I will be pleasantly surprised,right?
The secret is out of the bag (I kind of like having the book arrive without knowing what it is, but since I was looking around the NYRB website I now know not only the January book, but also what the February book will be, too). I really did want to read (try to anyway) each book right as it came out. Now will the first couple of books bunch up and throw me off before I even begin the new year? I could buy the Kindle book to begin reading (I see there is a 99-cent version, but that is sort of defeating the purpose and I hate buying the same book twice even if they are in different formats). A reading dilemma! One solution is just to not worry about it and return to the stack of 2015 subscription books and pick one from there (seeing as almost the entire year went unread).
If I can't read the 2016 January selection, how about I read the January 2015 selection? And serendipity as it happens to be Magda Szabó's The Door, which is not only one of the "ten best books of 2015 according to the NYTBR" but Janakay also assures me it is a wonderful read and one she found hard to put down. So that was easy. Into my bookbag it goes. And Murphy's Law . . . you know the minute I begin to get lost in this story, the NYRB January book will show up on my doorstep!
The Mystery Writer's of America have announced the nominees for this year's Edgar Awards (and so a new year of award giving begins!). There are a number of books on the list I would love to read, and I have one close at hand that has migrated to my bedside pile. The Strangler Vine by M.J. Carter is up for Best Novel. It also made the longlist for the 2014 Baileys Women's Prize, which makes me even more eager to pick it up (being a shelf sitter as well). Much like all those NYRBs from last year there are all those 'must have now' prize longlist books (quite a few from the Baileys Prize) sitting on my shelves patiently (maybe like me they are actually quite impatient to be read).
Since I'm on the subject of prize winners, I heard that Joan London (I read and loved her novel Gilgamesh some years ago) won the 2015 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction in Australia for her novel The Golden Age. Just a few paragraphs above I mentioned I was an impatient reader? Yes, and here is some more evidence. The book is not set to be published in the US until later at the end of summer, so just before the holidays I ordered a copy from Australia! I got free shipping, otherwise I would never have been able to afford it. Now I have to read it before August.
I have a new nonfiction just waiting for me to pick up. I've decided to stick with memoirs/biographies and wanted something historical so have picked up (but not yet started) Kathryn Harrison's Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured. When it was first released I knew I wanted to read it, but I waited until it came out in paper and now I can't wait to start. And I have yet to start reading a classic. Too many other distractions, I guess.
Danish crime writer Sara Blaedel is coming to the library where I work to speak early in February! It is a joint venture between my library and the Danish American Archive, which we have a relationship with. Quite a coup, I think. I have yet to read her, but I do have a copy of Call Me Princess. I wonder if I could possibly squeeze it in before she speaks. I am hoping to be able to attend.
Spoiled for choice. I already have a happy mix of 'already on the go' books and now these are lining up and watching me expectantly. And no three day weekend in sight. And then there is the ever-growing list of forthcoming books, which I might just share with you this weekend, that are hovering around in the background!